The theatre lights turn on and the credits roll as the audience slowly trickles out in a daze, shoes crunching popcorn kernels along the way.

But I’m still sitting in my theatre seat, unwilling to let reality set back in after watching such a happy ending. Because right then, in that moment, it feels like the princess always gets the prince, the monster is always slain, and every story ends well. But I know that when I leave the dimly-lit theatre and enter the harsh lights and sounds of the real world, life will seem much less certain.

Living with the Lights On

How do you escape reality? Maybe you get lost in the Internet or binge TV shows or go on a shopping spree. When the future seems uncertain and the past feels unfair, it’s easy to escape. It’s not so easy to believe that reality might actually be grander and more beautiful than our greatest fantasies.

But the Bible tells us that reality is beautiful.

This is reality: that God created us and loves us.

This reality doesn’t mean life won’t be difficult. It doesn’t mean that times won’t feel uncertain. But it does mean that, no matter what, we are loved and cherished by a living God. And by living in the love of our living God, we get to call God’s love our home.

If you want to embrace an encouraging reality today, you can journey into God’s message of hope and love. Here are some verses to get you started:

And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him. This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven. And we ourselves know and believe the love which God has for us. God is love, and those who live in love live in union with God and God lives in union with them. —1 John 4:9-10, 16 (GNTD)

Even though our physical being is gradually decaying, yet our spiritual being is renewed day after day. And this small and temporary trouble we suffer will bring us a tremendous and eternal glory, much greater than the trouble. For we fix our attention, not on things that are seen, but on things that are unseen. What can be seen lasts only for a time, but what cannot be seen lasts forever. —2 Corinthians 4:16-18 (GNTD)

For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to be its judge, but to be its savior. — John 3:16-17 (GNTD)

And I will be with you always, to the end of the age. —Matthew 28:20b (GNTD)

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Hannah DeMarco serves as a Content Specialist with American Bible Society. Originally hailing from South Jersey, she is proud to call Philadelphia her new home. When she’s not busy planning her next European adventure, she can be found photographing city streets and local cafés – all while consuming her weight’s worth in hot sauce. Hannah’s love for writing extends into her role as an adjunct English professor.